Painting Eggs
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: Snapshots of O'Brien and Edith through the ages.


**A/N: I own nothing, but I love O'Brien and think Edith is cute as a button so I was determined to write a fic about them :) Thanks to Lady Grantham for so much encouragement! **

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><p><strong>1.<strong>

After her first month at Downton Sarah O'Brien decides that Lady Mary, all of twelve years old and full of the worldly knowledge O'Brien supposes will see her be a hit on the marriage market in a few years, is a right little snob. It's to be expected she supposes and she's certainly encountered worse children in her career so far and it's not like she has to interact with her all that much anyway, so what does it matter? At least she's intelligent in her condescension and O'Brien supposes that is something and mostly ignores Mary. She can't help but internally roll her eyes when Carson sneaks her something sweet from the village they all know she has no intention of sharing with her sisters though.

Lady Sybil isn't too bad really. She's eight and runs around as though she were a boy sometimes but O'Brien always was better with boys and Sybil might not like her, she doesn't really blame her for this, but she does have a soft spot for her. If nothing else Sybil makes Lady Grantham smile the most and when she's in a good mood her ladyship is much more manageable.

But Lady Edith is an entirely different type of child. She's much quieter than the other two and though Sarah doesn't have a particular preference for quiet children – they're invariably up to something, she was a quiet child, she should know – she immediately likes the little girl. She's got deep eyes and looks eternally pained about something.

It only takes Sarah a month at Downton to work out what it is. She sees his Lordship pick Sybil up and place her on his shoulders, watches Lady Grantham fuss over Mary's dress and hair and praise her for her piano playing and reciting passages of Shakespeare.

Edith is not ignored, but the attention always feels second hand to Sarah.

**2.**

Sarah smiled as she presented Edith with the gift – the girls eyes had gone as wide as saucers and her mouth hung open – and delicately placed it in her small, freckled hand.

"It's so light."

"Well dragons can fly y'see, so they don't weigh much when they're babies."

Edith nodded along and Sarah wondered how long she could keep the pretense up, but knew immediately that the work she had put into it had been worth it.

_Mrs Hughes had looked at her like she was losing her mind._

"_You want an egg? Are we not feeling you enough Miss O'Brien?"_

_She rolled her eyes but was handed a large goose egg all the same. It seemed Mrs Hughes' intrigue as to what the lady's maid could possibly be up to was greater than her confusion over the request._

"_I'm not goin' to eat it. It's for Lady Edith."_

"_Why on earth does Lady Edith want a goose egg?"_

_They were quite alone in the servant's hall and Mrs Hughes slipped into the seat opposite her, staring at the egg as though there was something secret she was not being told._

"_It's a surprise for 'er."_

_Mrs Hughes looked bemused and Sarah smiled as she used one of her finest needles to poke a small hole in the shell, dripping the slimy insides carefully into a cup. She looked up at the Housekeeper and her smile widened as she explained._

Lady Edith handled the intricately painted egg – Sarah had left it overnight so it was completely dry and had placed it amongst the ashes of one of the lit bins the yard-boys used to burn newspaper and wood to give it a properly fire-burnt effect. All in all she was rather pleased with it.

"But won't it be big when it grows?"

Sarah shook her head seriously and gently guided Edith to a seat.

"It will be o'course, but," she sighed heavily and looked Edith in the eye – she'd learnt that the girl liked this, preferred to be treated like a grown up and invariably acted like one when she was treated as such. "They take a long time to grow you see. We'll have to bury it somewhere warm and one day, when you're older, it'll be ready to hatch and it'll know you looked after it."

She had expected some kind of disappointment from Lady Edith at not immediately getting a pet to play with and fly around the grounds upon but instead she was pleasantly surprised when Edith nodded back.

"And it'll be bigger then won't it?"

"Yes m'lady. It'll be nearly as big as your Grannies 'ouse."

'Just less fire-breathing,' she thought to herself.

Edith looks at the fragile thing with wide-eyed awe for a moment before looking up decisively with her sharp chin and deep eyes.

"I know where to bury it O'Brien"

Sarah smiles at the suggestion and thinks Lady Edith has given this altogether too much thought.

**3. **

There's a gentle knock on her door just before she blows out the gas-lamp by her bed and Sarah knows who the tentative noise belongs to long before she sees messy red curls poke their way around the slightly open door. She smiled softly – no matter what the time of night or the circumstance she never can be too annoyed with Lady Edith.

"Is everythin' alright Edith?"

The little girl, she's still so small for her age, shakes her head vehemently and Sarah sees the sheen of dried tears glistening in the candlelight. She pushes the bedcovers back intending to get up but with a rapid patter of her porcelain feet Edith was by her side and burrowing next to her on the bed. She doesn't hesitate for a moment before placing her arms around the girl and rubbing her back.

"What's wrong love?"

A little squeak that can be nothing but "Nightmare" comes from where Edith has hidden her face against Sarah's stomach as she clings to her desperately. Despite herself Sarah melted a little bit and stroked her hair.

"Don't you want your Mama?"

Edith manages to lift her head and sniffles, but there's an angry look to her now, indignation briefly taking over her fear. It occurred to Sarah what it must have cost Edith to get to her room – she was miles away from the girl's rooms after all and it would have been so much easier to go to Cora, rather than run through the dark house to the servant's corridor. With this in mind she guessed the answer before Edith spoke and felt some anger build inside her too.

"She never lets me go to her. She says I disturb her sleep. And Papa wouldn't like it."

Sarah chose not to respond and instead pulled Edith closer against her, shuffling them both down in the bedclothes until all that could be seen of the girl was the top of her curly head and her sleepy eyes closing.

"You can stay 'ere with me whenever you 'ave a nightmare love, I promise you."

**4.**

It's a month till Lady Mary's first season and the preparations are underway. The Countess has spent much of the last few weeks being driven back and forth to the dress shop with her eldest, stocking up on frocks, before coming home and handing her maid a selection of her own gowns that need mending, letting out or altering in some way.

It's tedious work but at least she's sat down for most of it so her feet get a well-deserved rest for a while, something the other servants resent going by Mrs Hughes huffy tones whenever she sees O'Brien once again sat at the table sewing, but Sarah can't really say she's interested in their opinions. Thomas is excited – he's not been to London in years and the second footman will be coming with the family for the first time – and so, it seems, is everyone else at the prospect of Lady Mary's inevitable success on the social scene.

O'Brien's in the servant's hall on her own for once when Lady Edith, sixteen and surly and still Sarah's favourite, slumps gracelessly into the seat next to the maids.

"You know Mama well O'Brien. Do you think she'll be like this next year?"

Sarah knew immediately what she meant and declined to answer immediately, instead raising her eyebrow and biting off a thread in one of Cora's newly mended skirts. Truthfully she didn't, but she had a feeling Lady Edith already knew this and was just spoiling for a fight with anyone over the subject – now they were older she sometimes tried her luck against Lady Mary's vicious wit and it pained Sarah to see her firmly put back in her place by her sharp sister every time. But Sarah would not be that person: she'd been so much in the girl's life now she wasn't about to become another villain in Lady Edith's skewered view of the world.

She couldn't blame the poor girl for being like that. She'd seen better than anyone what had led her to this point and only wished she could have done more than the occasional hug, buying her fudge from the village and mending her favorite teddy bear after Lady Sybil accidentally pulled its eye off.

"It's not my place to say m'lady."

Edith snorted but not without some humour. She understood how the system worked and she knew that Sarah had to be silent…she _must_ know what she really thought though? Mustn't she?

"Of course…if I was one to speculate m'lady. I think 'er ladyship might find she has enough dresses next year an' won't require quite as many trips."

She looked at Edith, trying to assess her reaction but it pained her heart to see that instead of the tears and anger there might once have been, the young woman instead looked accepting, resolved. She had stopped believing it seemed, that one day it might all have turned out to be an elaborate hoax and Lady Mary would be sent to Scotland to live with Aunt Elizabeth and Lady Sybil to Aunt Rosamund's (despite her teddy bear destroying antics Edith had insisted Sybil get the lesser of two evils when she'd once told Sarah about her theory) and she would be in possession of all her parents love.

"No. I don't imagine she will. Perhaps she'll have you make the dresses, rather than a proper dressmaker."

Had it been from anyone else Sarah would have bristled and threatened them with her needle - instead she raised her eyebrow and pursed her lips slightly, making sure Lady Edith saw her doing it.

"Sorry O'Brien…you know what-"

"I know what you mean m'lady."

"You used to call me love."

Sarah smiled softly.

"I know I did. It's not really appropriate anymore though m'lady."

Sarah wanted to tell her the sentiment was still the same though but thought it would defeat the object of trying to stick to her role a bit better in future. Goodness knows, Lady Grantham would have a fit if she knew how familiar Sarah had been with her child, even the middle one.

"Nothing is these days."

With that morose statement Lady Edith left her seat and wondered into the kitchen briefly before shooting up the stairs. Though Sarah thought it odd she didn't think on it until maybe twenty minutes later when she heard Mrs Patmore shrieking for one of her bloody knives and she immediately – much to the surprise of Anna who was now sat with her doing her own mending – shot out of her seat and ran up the stairs.

When she reached Lady Edith's room she heard crying and found the girl sat on the floor in her bathroom, a sea of red curls around her.

**5.**

She does regret that it has to be Edith. But she's under no doubt that Lady Mary deserves it and after so many years Edith still needs to be led to her revenge. It's not how Sarah would have wanted it – she wants the poor girl to be happy and this has just made her more miserable.

On the other hand it was for Thomas and she's under no doubt that if it gets out through him he'll never work again, Edith _must_ be able to recover. Edith will recover and Sarah will help her.

Really, it's all Mary's fault anyway: and Lady Grantham hasn't helped.

**6. **

Sarah knows it's silly. She's knows it's childish. But she really can't help herself.

After the garden party she settles Lady Grantham, holding her poor mistress' hand whilst she cries and grows worried about something she can't control, the last coping method of the devastated Sarah supposes. On her way downstairs she sees him talking to Lord Grantham – obviously he didn't go far after the announcement – and for all that she despises his lordship she can't help but think he's right to look annoyed at Sir Anthony Strallen.

"We were _all_ under the impression that Edith was read-"

The man gives a pained little laugh and Sarah wants to seek out the girl she's loved and hold her because she senses something is wrong straight away. She's been so concerned with her own troubles…

"Forgive me Lord Grantham. But I believe Lady Mary was under no such impression and she clearly had it straight from Lady Edith's mouth…."

Sarah turns round and heads back upstairs, having heard enough. She pokes her head around Lady Edith's door and her presence isn't even noticed by the sobbing girl on her bed, her hair askew, her clothes growing crumpled and Sarah is quite certain that her tears have little to do with the announcement. She sneaks out and onto the servant's staircase, crying herself with the futility of it all.

She couldn't help Lady Edith. She couldn't make Sir Anthony bleedin' Strallen see both reason and the fact that Lady Mary was a lying cow. She couldn't stop Thomas and William and Branson and Molesley and god knows who else from being eaten up by this bloody war. She couldn't turn back the clock and bring back the baby…

She _could_ wait until Anna is taking up Lady Mary's tea and lace it with pepper though. It was childish, but it gave the eldest sister a rash. So it was something.

**7.**

It's the midst of war and things like sibling jealousies shouldn't be so important when the casualty lists are coming back every week and there is usually at least one person on there they know. But the rivalry rears its head once more when within a few weeks Matthew is injured – not too bad, he'll have a scar, maybe a limp, but he'll live – and Sir Anthony Strallen marries one of the Skelton girls. Mary it seems will get her happy ending.

It's a cold night, all the nights seem to be cold now, and Sarah is sat outside feeling the same chill she knows Thomas is when she is joined by Edith. She's not really surprised anymore. The girls have been turning up below stairs more and more and even Cora has deigned to come down for something other than to issue demands. The house is changing but she sees Edith's red-rimmed eyes and her heart goes out to her and some things just aren't meant to change it seems.

"Lady Edith?"

"O'Brien…can I have a cigarette please?"

She knows she shouldn't give into the request, her ladyship would be furious, but there's something desperate in Edith's voice that she never was able to resist, so she hands it over and strikes a match. Edith breathes the cigarette in deeply and Sarah wondered how she had not noticed the little girl she'd known becoming a young woman who could smoke with the best of them.

Edith was silent whilst they smoked and there was a light smattering of rain coming down by the time she finally met Sarah's eyes.

"Do you remember what's buried here O'Brien?"

Sarah remembered. Of course she did. But she couldn't respond yet – she didn't know what Edith wanted of her for once.

"I'm older now…I can't remember when I realized it was a lie but it was kind of you to do it."

Sarah smiled in the darkness.

"Do you remember what I wanted it for most? The dragon I mean?"

If she had been a better person Sarah supposes she should have found Lady Edith's reasoning when she was a child for wanting a dragon and burying in in this exact spot somewhat alarming, but she couldn't help but find it amusing even now. She tapped her cigarette off and smirked.

"You wanted it to scare Lady Mary. An' you buried it 'ere because it's underneath her window and when it hatched she might have been the first person he saw and he'd 'ave eaten her."

Sarah couldn't prevent the smile that broke out on her face at the memory of how seriously Lady Edith had explained her choice so many years before. It must have been catching because soon Edith was smiling too and eventually they were laughing around their cigarettes as she rain fell harder.

"Do you think we could dig it up? Tomorrow perhaps."

Sarah very much doubted that time, and the weather, had been kind the little egg she and Lady Edith had buried underneath the small patch of grass one of the furnaces rested on but she was not about to tell Lady Edith that. Some things needed to be preserved.

"I'm sure we can find the time m'lady. Shall I come and fetch you?"

"No need O'Brien," she tossed the cigarette away and smiled brightly. "I'll come to your room after lunch."

Edith went back inside smiling and cheerful for the first time in as long as Sarah could remember, but an evening spent painting another egg and burying it first thing was a small price to pay for such a privileged sight.

**End.**


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